Reusse: Unbeaten Bethel’s strong defense powered by defensive back Devin Williams

St. John’s, St. Thomas and Bethel were the established football powers in the MIAC once Glenn Caruso arrived as Tommies coach in 2008. The pandemic wiped out what was supposed to be the Tommies’ last Division III football season in 2020.

The departure of one of Big Three led to Macalester’s return to MIAC football and with St. Scholastica as a replacement for St. Thomas — only numerically, not as an athletic force.

The MIAC tried a final week, semi-playoff system to protect the downtrodden for four years, but gave that up in 2025, switching to a full, nine-game conference schedule.

Which brought us to St. John’s at Bethel on Oct. 4, a warm day with a strong wind, and nothing to stop it blowing up there on the plain in Arden Hills. And most of us in attendance realized this:

There might be six weeks left in the conference schedule after this, but there was an overwhelming chance that the winner would be the MIAC champ at 9-0, and the loser would be the runner-up at 8-1.

This extra-early “title” game was tied at 10-10 in the third quarter. St. John’s, with the wind at its back, started a drive at its 30 at 11:50 on the clock. Nearly six minutes later, the Johnnies had a first down at the Bethel 3.

Caden Wheeler was stopped a touch short of the goal line in the officials’ opinion on first down. One more shot and the Johnnies should be in the lead. And then D-back Devin Williams flashed in from Wheeler’s left and dropped him at the Bethel 2.

And, as figured, six games later, the Royals were 9-0, one game ahead of St. John’s.

This week, Bethel coach Mike McElroy was in his office — preparing for Saturday’s round of 16 playoff game at home vs. Wisconsin-Platteville — and was offered this question:

“Was Devin’s play down at the goal line your tackle of the year?”

McElroy said: “That was big, but the tackle of the year might have been when he pushed a blocker into Wheeler for a stop at the start of that drive.”

At season’s end, Williams was voted MIAC Defensive Player of the Year. A year ago, that honor went to Matt Jung, another Bethel defensive back, who wound up transferring to Wisconsin on a nice NIL deal. He became a starter, and don’t blame Jung for the Badgers’ horrible season, since he played defense.

So that was the tiebreaker? “Not really,” he said. “I just thought it was interesting the way the coaches here saw me. I just wanted to play somewhere in a strong program.”

There was also this connection: “Micah Niewald was a Fridley teammate and one of my closest friends; he came here before me and said great things about this place,” Williams said.

This smarty-aleck comment was made to Williams this week: “You’ve been here four seasons and your college career will be over this month. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Williams smiled and said: “I started in 2022, and played right away. We’re running out of those six-year players from the pandemic.”

Across the border at UW-River Falls, Kaleb Blaha, Williams’ quarterback and a secondary partner in 2019 at Fridley, is a favorite for D-III Player of the Year honors in Year 6 of college. He is leading the Falcons into a home playoff game with St. John’s on Saturday.

Williams said: “Surprised by Kaleb? He always had ‘it’ as a quarterback.”

Devin has an eye for athletes of unique skill that was developed in the Williams family home in Fridley. His siblings are brothers Darius, 26, and Dante, 24. They played some interscholastic sports growing up, but developed a desire to become professional wrestlers.

Did they practice throwing you around in the basement?

“Not too much,” Williams said. “They worked at it hard. They started wrestling as independents on the small shows around here. Darius and Dante were discovered five years ago, and now they are doing great with AEW. It’s the competitor to WWE; on TBS, on TNT. They call themselves the Martin Brothers in wrestling.”

Darius was on the cell for a few minutes Friday morning from Columbus, Ohio.

“He’s just a good guy.”

Unless you’re a running back trying to get in the end zone from the 1-yard line and win a conference title in early October.

“After we won against St. John’s, we played expecting to be playing in December,” Williams said. “You would like more competitive games, but you have to understand — no matter the score, you have to stay mentally sharp and do your job at a high level.